you to your death!"
H. E. LI HUNG-CHANG.

CHAPTER X

THE STORY OF AN OPIUM SMOKER

THE first man to enter the Opium Refuge in Hwochow, as patient, was
named Fan of the village of Southern Springs. He came from a once
wealthy clan, now reduced through opium smoking to comparative poverty.
He had not yet reached the stage of positive want, but that condition is
never far from the habitual heavy smoker, and should he continue a few
years longer, beggary will be the ultimate fate of his wife and family.

The temptation was at his very door, for all the best-watered land
surrounding Southern Springs was given up to poppy cultivation. During
the time when the plant was in flower, the village nestled amidst some
hundreds of acres of exquisite iridescent bloom. The beauty was
shortlived, even as the seeming prosperity of the grower, and but a few
days later Southern Springs stood amidst bare brown fields of dry poppy
heads, scarred by the cutter's knife, exuding in thick drops the
poisonous juices--a striking picture in the eyes of all men of the fate
awaiting the smoker, who, lulled by the insidious charm of the
fascinating drug, would finally be the only one unable to see himself a
hopeless, helpless, degraded wreck.

At the close of three weeks' treatment in the Refuge, Fan returned home
a new creature, restored in body and mind, and with a heart renewed in
hope. In his own immediate family were several members, victims as
himself of the deadly drug, and amongst these was his nephew, adopted
into the family on the footing of a son since death had robbed him of
the last boy who might pay the filial sacrifice of tears and
lamentations at his tomb. Moreover, his wife's keen intelligence and
strong will were gradually being subjugated by a growing apathy, result
of her secret habit. On these two Fan urged a plea to give the Refuge a
trial, and his nephew, impressed by the evident good result in his
uncle's case and the assurance that the treatment had induced very
slight suffering, pronounced himself willing to try the experiment; his
wife, on the other hand, repudiated with scorn any such suggestion.
Another few weeks saw the young man return to Southern Springs loud in
praise of all he had seen and heard in Hwochow. He recounted all his
experiences, every detail of the treatment, the number of pills
swallowed, and the care with which the strength of the pills was graded
fro